Telecommunication networks

Abstract

A mobile telecommunications network includes a core and a radio access network having radio means for wireless communication with mobile terminals registered with the network, wherein the radio access network includes control means 700 operable to control the use of network resources by the mobile terminals. The control means processes control plane signalling.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A mobile telecommunications network comprising:
 a network core; and 
 a radio access network having radio means for wireless communication with terminals registered with the network, the radio access network comprising control means operable to control the use of network resources by said terminals, 
 wherein the control means is operable to receive a request for a service from a terminal and to determine, based on one or more specified criteria associated with the requested service, whether the control means should provide access to an application hosted on the control means that provides the requested service, or whether the control means should pass the request elsewhere for provisioning by another entity, and 
 wherein the control means is operable to return to the terminal an address which facilitates access to the application providing the service hosted on the control means, or to return a second address that provides access to the service elsewhere in dependence upon the determination by the control means. 
 
     
     
       2. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to receive network policy from the network core, wherein the determination of whether the control means should provide access to an application hosted on the control means which provides the requested service or should pass the request to another entity is dependent on the network policy. 
     
     
       3. The network of  claim 2 , wherein the network policy includes routing information. 
     
     
       4. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the request for service is a DNS lookup request. 
     
     
       5. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the address which facilitates access to the service at the control means is an IP address of an application providing the requested service at the control means. 
     
     
       6. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the address which facilitates access to the service elsewhere is an address which enables the service to be provided via the network core. 
     
     
       7. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to record details of content that it delivers to a terminal and to pass the details to the core network, the details enabling the core network to access a copy of the content for analysis. 
     
     
       8. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to host an application and to selectively pass traffic related to that application for analysis by the network core. 
     
     
       9. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to cache data relating to an application hosted thereby and includes means for temporarily restricting access to the cached data until the cached data has been analysed at the network core. 
     
     
       10. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to cache data relating to an application hosted thereby, the control means further operable to check the cache data in response to receiving the request for service to determine whether the requested service can be provided at the control means from the cache data. 
     
     
       11. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to cache data relating to an application hosted thereby and to apply an identifier to the cached data to be used by the control means to determine whether a terminal is granted access to the cached data. 
     
     
       12. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to apply an identifier to the service hosted at the control means, the control means operable to determine if a terminal is granted access to the service dependent on the identifier. 
     
     
       13. The network of  claim 1 , wherein the control means is further operable to receive from the terminal a terminal profile, and wherein the control means is operable to determine if the terminal is granted access to the service dependent on an indicator within the profile.